After five years of planning, Wairarapa is about to have its own family entertainment park.
Go-Zone is due to open at the end of March if all goes to plan, owner Amanda Mitchell said.
She said the entertainment park will include a big playground for older children, a trampoline area, and a toddler playground that includes a tiny town.
She said the park will also have a party room and party marquee inside.
But wait, there’s more: “We have a couple of special features that we’re going to keep under wraps that we’re hoping will set us apart from the other parks around,” Mitchell said.
The idea initially occurred to Mitchell and her husband Joe after they became parents and discovered there were no local indoor entertainment options for families.
“It’s been a really long work in progress. We’ve been sitting on the idea for about five years now, and we decided probably a year and a half ago to pull the trigger.”
Mitchell said she wanted the park to be a community-driven facility everyone could be proud of and hoped it would attract visitors from outside the region.
If the park does well, the Mitchells have big plans to expand it.
“We haven’t quite been able to do everything we wanted to from the start, but we really do hope that we will add to it as the years go on.”
Mitchell said many people had compared their park’s concept to Upper Hutt’s Brew Town, and she hoped they would not be disappointed when it launched.
“Brew Town has done the same. They have built up over the years to provide something for everyone.”
She said the area of the Waingawa Industrial Estate where Go-Zone is being built is also being upgraded.
The Mitchells had struggled to find a building big enough to house the park.
“We had all types of plans to build, but then building prices skyrocketed.
“Even bringing the gear into the country has nearly doubled in price with the exchange rate.”
Consent for the project was granted by Carterton District Council [CDC] in October last year, with the requirement that a smaller building adjacent to the park be removed to accommodate on-site parking.
CDC confirmed the applicant did not intend to change or upgrade the existing access from Norman Ave, where neighbouring businesses include Kiwi Lumber, Mainfreight, and Wool Wairarapa.
Although Mitchell said the aim was to open the park in about 10 weeks – “we think that’d be a really good time leading into the colder months” – she acknowledged “things could happen that delay that”.
Park springs into region
